This last week has been Manufacturing Week in the North East with a good campaign supported by the Journal. I deal with the North East Chamber of Commerce a lot and they published on Friday a briefing note entitled "Championing North East Business". It is worth reading. Its key request is as follows:
"Businesses need to be able to devote the maximum level of resources, including finance and manpower, to delivering growth in 2010. The public sector must avoid placing requirements on companies which will distract resources from core business priorities.
Immediate issues include:
Certainty over tax changes to be made in the next Parliament, allowing medium-term investment planning.
Abandonment of plans to increase employers’ National Insurance Contributions due to the additional cost this will place on employment growth.
Culture and practice in local planning authorities which seeks to enable development to go ahead and ends a ‘development control’ mentality.
Broader, simpler and smarter approaches to public procurement which makes the large public sector market as easy to access as possible for North East businesses."
Less government intervention is their key requirement - I could not agree more. Every businessman, doctor, teacher, and even parent says the same thing.
